Suicide Bombing Kills 12 People in Iraq: Reports

A suicide car bomb killed 12 Shiite militiamen and Iraqi soldiers and injured 18 people on Monday in a town north of Baghdad.

MOSCOW, January 12 (Sputnik) – A suicide car bomb killed 12 Shiite militiamen and Iraqi soldiers on Monday in a town north of Baghdad, reports Associated Press.

The Islamic State militant struck his explosive-laden car into a congregation of soldiers and Shiite fighters in the town of Abasiyat, just south of Tikrit, 130 kilometers north of Baghdad.

Police and hospital officials said the attack killed 10 militiamen and two soldiers, while wounding another 18 people.

According to the Associated Press, clashes between Iraqi security forces and militants from the Islamic State group erupted immediately after the attack, though the militants did not immediately claim responsibility for the bombing.

The Islamic State captured about a third of Iraq last year. The militant attacks have become Iraq's worst crisis since the 2011 withdrawal of US troops.

The airstrikes against the Islamic State group in both Iraq and Syria are being conducted by the US coalition. On Monday, the US military said in a statement that coalition aircraft conducted 16 airstrikes in Iraq and 11 in Syria, reports AP.

On Monday, Iran's semi-official Fars news agency reported that a member of paramilitary wing of Revolutionary Guard, Mahdi Norouzi, was killed while fighting the Islamic State group in Iraq.